Friday, January 30, 2009

Wisconsin’s Senators Avoid Bipartisanship

New tone?

First, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner lost his post as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the same time that Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

Then, the Menomonee Falls Republican watched his party lose the White House. Now, he says, Wisconsin’s senators are ignoring him when it comes to nominating federal judges and prosecutors.

The two Democratic senators are under no obligation to consult with Sensenbrenner now that a Democrat is president. But Sensenbrenner, who as Wisconsin’s senior Republican worked with the senators on nominations in the Bush administration, says Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold lost an opportunity at bipartisanship when they failed to involve him in the process.

“They had a chance to be bipartisan,” he says. “They played the partisan card.”

Kohl’s and Feingold’s offices declined to comment.

In other words, Sensenbrenner consulted the Senators about judges and such when Bush was in office, but they won’t return his calls now that a Democrat is in office.  So much for reaching across the aisle.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0700 hrs
Politics + Politics - General + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. And you can bet this order came from O himself.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 30, 2009 at 1030 hrs


  2. I’m pretty sure you saw this part of the article too…

    According to the commission’s charter, the senators each appoint four members to the body when they belong to the same party as the president.

    The commission is led by the dean of Marquette University Law School for vacancies in the Eastern District and by the dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison for vacancies in the Western District. The commission also includes two members chosen by the State Bar of Wisconsin.

    When a president belongs to a different party than the state’s two senators, the most senior elected official of the president’s party gets to appoint four members to the commission. The senators each appoint two members.

    So Sensenbrenner working with the Dems because he had to deserves our applause, but the Democrats ignoring Sensenbrenner when the GOP has zero appointees to the committee is a terrible slap in the face?  Gee, what a great nonpartisan guy Jim Sensenbrenner is.  Because if the shoe were on the other foot, I’m sure Sensenbrenner would be begging Democrats for advice.  Just like he did when he was shoving the Patriot Act and Real ID down everyone’s throats.  Yup, nonpartisan.  That’s our Sensenbrenner!

    And on top of that, Sensenbrenner only had any say in the process to begin with because Wisconsin can’t elect a Republican senator to save its life.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on January 30, 2009 at 1215 hrs


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